Peeps at Postage Stamps Part 5

STAMPS OF SPECIAL INTEREST

Most stamps as they repose in their rows on the pages of the alb.u.m look very sober, matter-of-fact, little squares of paper. Some appear travel-stained, others are in the pink of condition, but all have undergone an experience--we are speaking of the used copies--which, could it be related, would make reading matter of a highly interesting nature. One specimen which lies in the alb.u.m did duty, say, in the backwoods of the United States; another carried a letter across the snowfields of Siberia; a third franked correspondence in the unsettled land of Mexico; and a fourth brought a message from the battlefields of Belgium and Northern France. Viewed in this light, every obliterated specimen which figures in our collection is a curiosity.

There are, however, other kinds of curious stamps which are worth discussing. Who, for instance, would ever dream that a stamp could cause serious disturbance among a whole race of some millions of people? Yet this is what happened quite recently in India. The offending stamp was the two annas, bearing a profile portrait of King George. The trouble can be related briefly. The label showed the King attractively arrayed, and bearing a number of decorations, one of them being the elephant which denotes an Indian order. Unfortunately, the engraving was a trifle indistinct, and instead of the creature appearing as an elephant, as it should have done, it seemed to be an exact representation of a pig. Now, the latter animal is considered a most unclean thing by all faithful Mohammedans, and the people of this religious creed were not slow to suppose that somebody in power had placed the animal on the King's breast merely to insult them. Had it not been for the tactful a.s.surances made by the authorities, and the early subst.i.tution of another stamp more carefully engraved, the results would probably have been of a serious character.

Another curious stamp is the Connell label, emanating from the colony of New Brunswick. Connell was the postmaster-in-chief of this British dependency. On one occasion he was requested to journey to New York to place a contract with a firm of stamp printers. What possessed him n.o.body knows. Instead of directing that Queen Victoria's portrait should appear on all the stamps to be engraved, he ordered that the five cents value should bear his features, which, to be candid, were not at all attractive. In due course the stamps arrived, but the authorities, on discovering Connell's audacity, issued a proclamation declaring the label to be worthless. The postmaster, so history tells us, became angry, and rather than appear before a prosecuting council retired hastily to the States. The Connell stamp, needless to say, is a rare curiosity, and few copies are known to exist. It is perhaps a little doubtful, however, whether the label can be reckoned as an authentic postage stamp, seeing that its use never received official sanction.

Vanity seems to play an important part in the lives of people--at least, this is the testimony which many of our stamps bear out. Some men like Connell crave for such notoriety as a postage stamp can afford them, but there are others--crowned heads--who will not allow their features to be portrayed upon the labels of their country, lest the obliteration marks may render them grotesque.

Among conceited Kings of recent times, King Ferdinand of Sicily stands out pre-eminently in the minds of philatelists. He possessed something of the Connell weakness, for he evinced a keen desire to have his head portrayed upon the stamps of his little kingdom; but running counter with this desire was a strong fear lest the marks of the postal obliterator should disfigure his none too prepossessing countenance. In the end, he thought of a kind of compromise. He called in one of the best engravers of the day and commanded him to execute a fine series of adhesives bearing his profile. When the issue was ready, Ferdinand provided the postal authorities with obliterating stamps, each of which consisted of a circular framework of lines, surrounding an empty s.p.a.ce.

The idea was that the lines should deface the edges of the stamp, but that the empty s.p.a.ce should save his profile from disfigurement. What happened to his overworked officials who chanced to bring their obliterators down upon the royal countenance by mistake is too awful to contemplate!

[Ill.u.s.tration: CURIOUS STAMPS

1 Belgium (Brussels) St. Michael encountering Satan

2 Stamp holding record for length of currency

3 Belgian stamp with two Dominical labels

4 Stamp of King Edward issued at the time of his death

5 Spanish stamps with face value of 1-40th of a penny

6 Orange Free State stamp indicating British occupation

7 Austrian stamp overprinted for use in Constantinople

8 King Manoel's stamps overprinted for Republican use

9 Local stamp

10 Indian stamp showing King George wearing the Elephant (Order of India)]

Not only do some stamps betray the weaknesses of individuals, but others reveal the characters of nations. Let us look for a moment at the stamps of Belgium. Each is provided with a small label which bears the words, "Not to be delivered on Sunday." This label is very insignificant, and stamp collectors have seen it so often that they are apt to pa.s.s it by unnoticed. But this tiny strip of paper has a deep underlying purpose.

The Belgians, as a nation, are sharply divided on matters of religion into two great bodies. The Roman Catholic section objects to having its letters delivered on Sundays, whilst the section of Freethinkers can see no harm in a postal delivery on the day which we in England set apart for rest. The Belgians are a tolerant race, however, and the matter has been settled by providing each stamp with what has been called a Dominical label. The Catholics use the label with the stamps they buy, but the Freethinkers detach them. The postmen are instructed to deliver letters on Sundays only when the footnote is missing from the stamps.

Another curious stamp is the twopenny plum colour King Edward issue of Great Britain. Who has ever heard of this adhesive? Who has ever seen it? The chances are that few collectors know that such a stamp ever existed, yet a used copy figures in the collection of King George.

The story relating to this stamp is as follows: In the early months of the year 1910 it was decided to change both the pattern and colour of the twopenny green and carmine. A rather attractive design was selected instead, and eventually printed in a hue which the authorities called "Tyrian plum." Some thousands of these labels were printed and held ready for issue, but just as they were to be placed on sale, the sad and unexpected death of King Edward took place. Rather than issue a new stamp after the King's demise, the whole stock was gathered together and burned. A few copies, however, were preserved for record purposes, and one at least was stuck to an envelope addressed to our present Sovereign, and posted at the East Strand Post Office.

The V.R. penny black is another stamp of the Home Country which every philatelist should know about. It is a famous label, not because it has ever made history or fulfilled any important mission, but because people have grown to look upon it as a rare form of the ordinary penny black.

In reality the V.R. stamps never attained to the dignity of a postal label, for, although intended for official use, the authorities decided at the last moment not to make the issue, and destroyed the stock. A certain number of copies leaked out, and found their way into collectors' alb.u.ms, and these command a fair price.

Of late there has been a great increase all over the world in the picturesque type of stamp, and these have provided a fairly large crop of pictorial "inexact.i.tudes." As an example, two adhesives of the well-known United States Columbian issue may be mentioned, seeing that they have evoked many a smile among philatelists. The stamps in question are the one and the two cents values. The former portrays Columbus sighting land, whilst the latter reveals the famous traveller in the act of landing. As is well known, an interval of but twenty-four hours separated the two events, yet in the first picture Columbus appears clean-shaven, whilst in the latter he possesses a beard of ample and stately proportions!

Another interesting picture stamp of the United States is the one dollar value of the Omaha issue. The stamp bears the t.i.tle of "Western Cattle in Storm," but those of us who know the canva.s.ses of MacWhirter will recognize it as a reproduction of his painting, "The Vanguard." Mr. F.

J. Melville, a noted philatelist, says in "Chats on Postage Stamps" that the United States Post Office "literally cribbed" MacWhirter's picture, apparently without permission or any sort of payment.

Many stamps possess particular interest owing to some speciality in manner of production. Just now a semi-perforated adhesive is becoming popular. Its upright sides are imperforated, but top and bottom the usual perforation marks are present. Such specimens are manufactured in rolls--not in sheets--for special use in automatic machines. They come largely from the United States and the Union of South Africa, and are, of course, only available in the penny and halfpenny, or equivalent, values. These semi-perforated stamps are of undoubted interest to-day, though the time may not be far distant when they will completely oust the usual perforated type.

CHAPTER VIII

FORGED STAMPS

Stamps are forged for two purposes, first to cheat philatelists, and second to cheat the postal authorities. The former kind of trade is fairly lucrative, but in England, at any rate, the production of fict.i.tious stamps for postal uses seldom enjoys more than a short-lived success.

The forger hardly ever takes up his abode in the Home Country, for the pains and penalties awaiting him, when apprehended, are severe. He far prefers a Continental existence, where he can work his printing-press in obscurity. His unsavoury wares, however, are made to circulate in England just as much as abroad, and the novice must be ever on his guard in consequence.

Some forgers possess elaborate and costly plant, and have the means of turning out labels printed quite as well as the originals. But most people in this dishonest trade are handicapped for capital, and have to rely on the cheaper processes--usually lithography--in the production of their forgeries. It is here that a knowledge of the various means of printing stamps proves so valuable to the collector. A specimen, say, of a line-engraved stamp produced by lithography immediately excites suspicion, and a close examination shows it to be an undoubted counterfeit.

The watermark is another stumbling-block with the stamp faker of small means. He has no opportunity of procuring paper impressed with all the various watermarks, and so he often prints on ordinary paper, and trusts to the philatelist's ignorance or lack of examining powers. Of course, the beginner is often caught by such practices, but it is really wonderful how soon a serious collector grows to know at sight the real and the unreal.

An ingenious trick of the forger in a small way of business consists in transforming a common stamp into a valuable one. His work is not very arduous, and his apparatus costs but a few pence. All he needs is an apt.i.tude for drawing, a few paints, brushes, and some chemicals. He selects, first of all, an issue where the stamps all bear an identical design and are printed in the same colour, the value, and perhaps an additional word or two, only being printed in a distinctive colour. His choice of stamp is by no means limited, for in Queen Victoria's time it was a favourite arrangement with many Colonies for the head and ornamentation to be printed in a shade of purple and the name of the colony and the price to vary on each value.

The forger takes a nice copy of the halfpenny, and cleans out the price and any features which make the stamp distinctive, by means of chemicals; then he fills in the blank areas with the particular lettering--using, of course, the correct colour--of a high-priced stamp.

His work takes but a few minutes, and in this time he can transform a label worth, say, a penny into one catalogued at, perhaps, ten shillings. This form of faking is particularly dangerous, because such distinguishing marks as perforations, watermark, and quality of paper, are correct in every detail.

The length to which some forgers will go is positively amazing. A few years back a case came to light where one of these rogues regularly used real stamp-paper on which to print his worthless imitations. His plan was to buy a whole sheet of low-priced unused stamps, to remove all the printing by chemical means, and then to print on the blank paper so obtained a complete sheet of high-priced stamps. Of course, he had to select his paper and his stamps with care, but this was a matter simple enough. It is interesting to point out that the home authorities, seeing the possibility of such practices, have made it a rule to use one watermark for adhesives of low value and another for those of high value.

What is the best way to tell whether a specimen is a forgery? This is a question often asked. The first test is the watermark, but sufficient has been said already to show that too much faith must not be placed on this detail, especially as we may add that a very respectable imitation may be produced by painting the back of the label with oil. The next point to note is the perforation. These marks must be shaped in a business-like way, and be of the correct number as indicated by the catalogues. The third point is the printing, and the fourth the colour of the ink used. Lastly, the design should be compared with an identical stamp known to be genuine. Beyond such simple tests as these the collector needs to exercise ordinary common sense in arriving at a conclusion. If, say, a specimen is nice and fresh, and the catalogue tells us that it is at least fifty years old, a certain amount of suspicion might not be out of place.

It is not always a simple matter to know whether a stamp is a forgery or not. Cases are on record where the postal authorities themselves have been unable to distinguish between the real and the unreal. Some years ago the shilling value of Great Britain was counterfeited and used for postal purposes not once or twice, but some thousands of times, and never an atom of suspicion was excited. The case is recorded by Mr. F.

J. Melville in his work, "Chats on Postage Stamps," in the following words:

"A romantic forgery, and one of almost colossal magnitude, was discovered in 1898. About that time a large quant.i.ty of British one shilling stamps--those of the 1865 type in green, with large uncoloured letters in the corners--came on the market, though, as they had been used on telegram forms, they ought to have been destroyed; probably the guilty parties relied on this official practice, not always honoured in observance, as offering a security against not merely the tracing of the offence, but the discovering of the fraud itself.

"Anyhow, after a lapse of twenty-six years, it was found that amongst these one shilling stamps there was a large proportion of forgeries (purporting to be from Plate V.), all used on July 23, 1872, at the Stock Exchange Telegraph Office, London, E.C. More recent discoveries show that the fraud was continued over twelve months, and, as an indication of the precautions taken by the forgers, Plate VI. (which came into use in March, 1872) was duly imitated, although the change of the small figures was a detail probably never noticed by members of the general public.

[Ill.u.s.tration: STAMPS BEARING NATIONAL EMBLEMS

1 New South Wales 5 Sweden 9 Switzerland 2 Belgium 6 Russia 10 Turkey 3 Mauritius 7 Italy 11 Brazil 4 j.a.pan 8 Bosnia]

"According to calculations based on the average numbers used on several days, the Post Office must have lost about 50 a day during the period mentioned above. Who were the originators and perpetrators of the fraud will probably never be known; possibly a stockbroker's clerk (or a small 'syndicate' of these gentlemen), or, more probably, a clerk in the Post Office itself. It was an ingenious fraud, well planned, and cleverly carried out at a minimum of risk, and but for the market for old stamps it would never have been discovered."

For purposes of reference, we give below a list of the stamps which have been most frequently copied, together with hints on how to detect the forgeries. (G. = genuine; F. = forgery.)

ALSACE AND LORRAINE.--G., the points of the network in the background turned up; F. has them turned down. The "P" of word "Postes" farther from margin in G. than F. Used copies more likely to be G. than unused.

BELGIUM.--One centime, Leopold, 1861. F., yellowish paper instead of white. The word "Postes" has no outline round each letter in F.

Obliterated specimens often F.

BRAZIL.--The early issues, with numerals in centre of filigree work often imitated. Paper too thick in F.